Strange Dinosaur Names
Paleontologists, those scientists that study fossils of life-forms from prehistoric times, are a fun bunch. Apparently, sifting through fossilized bones, dung (yep, dung: look up coprolite wiki), stomach content (gastrolith) and even vomit (again, real: regurgitalith wiki), gives paleontologist a unique sense of humor. How? They love to give dinosaurs silly names! AACHENOSAURUS Actually, this might be a bad way to start a list of weird dinosaur names. See, Aachenosauruswiki fossil fragments were found and named by Gerard Smets in 1888, who argued that they were jaw fragments of a duck-billed dinosaur. When paleontologist Louis Dollo proved that his "dinosaur" were actually petrified wood, Smets was so embarrassed that he withdrew from science completely. If he had lived, Smets would probably feel better because someone else made the same mistake in 1941. Then, German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene thought he had discovered the jaw bone of a new dinosaur he named Succinodon putzeri wiki, which later turned out to be fossilized wood filled with wood-boring clams. AEGROTOCATELLUS JAGGERI In 1995, a trilobite species was named after The Rolling Stones' singer Mick Jagger by Adrain and Edgecombe. As if that's not neat enough, turns out Aegrotocatellus means "sick puppy" in Latin. Mick Jagger was quite popular amongst the paleontologists - turns out there's another species named after him: a fossilized mollusk called Anomphalus jaggerius. ARCTICALYMENE VICIOUSI, A. ROTTENI, A. JONESI, A. COOKI, A. MATLOCKI That guy Greg Edgecombe (you'll see more of him later) is one funny prankster. He named (another) trilobite series after Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, and Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. ARTHURDACTYLUS CONAN-DOYLENSIS A pterodactyl named for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You may know him as the author of those Sherlock Holmes detective stories, but the pterodactyl was named for him because of his 1912 novel The Lost World about an expedition to a hidden plateau in South America where dinosaurs were still alive. ATLASCOPCOSAURUS LOADSI This Australian dinosaur wiki was named after the company Atlas Copco, which manufactured industrial tools and equipments. The company provided the equipment for the expedition. The species name loadsi was named after William Loads, the state manager for Atlas Copco at the time, who also assisted during the dig. AVALANCHURUS LENNONI, A. STARRI, A. SIMONI, A. GARFUNKELI In 1993, Edgecombe (yup, again) and Chatterton named a series of trilobite species Avalanchurusafter famous singers like John Lennon and Ringo Starr of the Beatles and Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. The two paleontologists didn't forget Paul McCartney and George Harrison, they named other trilobites Struszia mccartneyi and S. harrisoni after them. BAMBIRAPTOR FEINBERGI Yup - this 75-million year old bird-like fossil was named after the famous Disney movie character. As if that’s not remarkable enough, a near complete skeleton of Bambiraptor wiki was discovered in 1995 by a 14-year-old fossil hunter named Wes Linster, who was looking for dino bones with his parents in Glacier National Park in Montana. Feinbergi was named after a wealthy family who bought and donated the specimen to the Graves Museum of Natural History in Florida. BOROGOVIA This bipedal carnivore of a dinosaur was named after the borogoves, creatures from Lewis Carroll's poem Jabberwocky wiki. CAMELOTIA BOREALIS Named after Camelot, the mythical castle of King Arthur, by Peter Galton in 1985, this dinosaur seems to fit the name well: scientist can't decide whether this plant eater actually exist as its own genus or if it is actually a member of another family. CHUNGKINGOSAURUS JIANGBEIENSIS Discovered in 1977, this stegosaurus-like dinosaur was named after the Chinese city of Chongqing, not the Wong Kar-Wai movie Chongking Express wiki, although that would've been neater! CUTTYSARKUS MCNALLYI Supposedly, there is a fossilized lizard named Cuttysarkus that was named so because its discoverer was promised a bottle of Scotch if he found a mammal jaw. Sounds suspicious to me, but if it's true, then hey, that's neat. DRACOREX HOGWARSIA Three amateur dinosaur hunter discovered the fossil that look remarkably similar to a dragon. As a tribute to JK Rowling's Harry Potter series of books, the fossil was named Dracorex wiki (meaning "Dragon King") hogwartsia, after the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. ELVISAURUS This bipedal dinosaur has a bizarre crest on its head that looks like a Spanish comb (and Elvis' hairdo!). Elvisaurus, which is now formally called Cryolophosauruswiki, was the first dinosaur to be discovered in Antarctica. ENIGMOSAURUS When Mongolian paleontologist Rinchen Barsbold and Altangerel Perle discovered a puzzling and unusual hip bone of a new dinosaur, they decided to name it Enigmosaurus! ERECTOPUS Despite its dirty-sounding name, Erectopus was a meat-eating dinosaur with long hands and short claws. It was actually named after the latin words for "upright foot." Remember that when you next get an upright foot. ERIC All Erics of the world, listen up: there's a dinosaur named after you. Well, no. Actually it's a marine reptile named after Eric Idle wiki of Monty Python. GASOSAURUS As if energy companies aren't rich and powerful enough already, they also got a dinosaur named after them! Gasosaurus was named after a natural gas company found it in 1985 during a construction of a gas facility. GOJIRASAURUS Yes, this is a dinosaur named after Gojira, the Japanese name for "Godzilla". It was named by an American paleontologist Kenneth Carpenter, who credited seeing the movie Godzilla as his inspiration for studying fossils. Ironically, it was found in New Mexico, USA, not Japan. Category:Discoveries Category:Greek names Category:Paleontologists